Chapter 25

It was another good Saturday of the year and the group of Slytherins was excited, as they would have a Quidditch practice that was scheduled in The third of October. Harry Potter was in a happy mood as his grades so far were good and he only received one Acceptable so far; even his extra curricular sessions with Snape on dueling were going well as Harry was on the way to master that skill. Professor Snape would not tell it to him but in his mind, the Defense Professor knew that Potter would become one of the best Defense students in the entire school by the time he were to graduate. The weather was still warm and sunny and as November rains did not arrive yet. Harry Potter was sure that he would still be the Slytherin's team Chaser as Captain Marcus Flint suggested to him to practice even more and gave him some suggestions for the next game.

As Harry walked to the common room, he saw Draco, Hermione and Daphne waiting for him. Hermione was reading a Charms textbook while practicing a spell, Draco was reading a Quidditch textbook and Daphne was just sitting on the couch, thinking about something. "Hey, guys, are you ready for today's tryouts?" he asked his friends

"I don't think I will go," replied Hermione

"Hermione, you should at least try, Quidditch is a great sport" Draco defended his favorite game.

"Please, Hermione?"

"Alright Harry" The girl put her book down and the Silver Quartet walked to the changing rooms to put the sports wear for the tryouts. However, as the group met at the pitch, they saw that Hermione did not change.

"I will watch you try, but I do not want to play in this game." The four students then ran towards their Captain Marcus Flint, who was already looking at the potential players.

"Potter, you are a seeker. Now, who wants to be a chaser?" some people lifted their arms and Flint gave them brooms.

"Show me what you can do. You have ten tries, you need to score as many times as you can. Of you go, Greengrass first" Daphne and Flint flew in the air and the girl tried to send the ball in the hoops. She tried her hardest but unfortunately as the girl later found out, she only scored three points out of ten.

"Next" cried Flint as another person trying for the position tried. The Chasers tryouts lasted for an hour and as everybody that wished to get that position tried their best; Flint descended on the grass and looked at the players.

"Malfoy, you are on the team. Well done for your nine points." Draco smiled, as he liked the fact that he was now on the team. All the years of practice at Malfoy Manor paid off and now he could be on the snake's team.

While Malfoy joined Harry on the benches where the team sat, Flint was still thinking on who should be the third chaser. Nobody was as good as Malfoy that year and the closest score to ten was two seven points. Flint thought for a minute and took a bigger boy on the team. "Now, lets choose Keepers. I will fly and try to score, while you would try to defend. Every time I do not score, you lose a point. You start at ten" By now the crowd had gotten smaller as some people did not want to try for the other positions. After another hour, Flint chose the best Keeper, that saved his place seven times and two biggest boys for the Beaters. The rest of the people that tried for the team left and Harry and Draco joined their friends.

"Congratulations, Draco, you are now on the team! I knew that you wanted that very badly" Daphne told her friend as the four walked towards the castle.

"I saw that you did not even bother to try" the group heard a voice behind them and saw Pansy Parkinson standing close to the group.

"Pansy, what do you want? "

"Nothing Draco, just to say that you should not be friends with that scum, especially that Mudblood" she pointed to Hermione and then was thrown three meters back.

"Do not say anything bad about Hermione!" exclaimed Harry as he pointed his wand at the girl.

"What will you do to me, Potter? O, wait, you wont hurt me, right? How could I fight you on equal terms, you half blood Boy Who Lived" Harry looked at Pansy with anger but did not fire any spell.

"You see, I can call that Mudblood anything and she would not even fight me" By now Harry saw that Hermione was sitting close on the grass, crying with her wand being dropped on the ground.

"Hermione" Harry ran towards the girl as Pansy laughed at them. However, as Harry ran towards his friend and turned his back on Pansy; before she could hex him, a girl jumped on her.

"I am not so hesitant to hurt you!" Daphne jumped at the other Slytherin girl and the two began a catfight. They dropped their wands and started hitting the other with their fists, as well as tearing their hair away, while rolling on the ground. However, at one point Pansy got an upper hand and was ready to knock out her opponent.

"Do not touch her" cried Neville as he ran towards the fight and hexed the girl, so that she flew away from Daphne. The Slytherin girl stood up and left, vowing to come back at some point for a rematch.

"Neville, what are you doing here?" asked Hermione as the two Slytherins returned to their group since Hermione had already calmed down.

"I was reading a Herbology book over there and saw that Daphne and Parkinson fought, I ran as fast as I could as I did not want that girl to hurt Daphne."

"Um, Neville, you can take away your hand," replied Daphne as the boy blushed slightly as their hands were holding together. The groups returned to the castle, where the Slytherins said "Bye" to Neville and returned to their common room. As the group was walking towards the castle, two people were looking at them from behind a school window's glass. Lily Potter was proud of her son; Snape also observed Potter.

The two adults then noticed that they stood too closely to each other and they then looked in the other person's eyes. Lily Potter then made a couple steps back, as the closeness with the other Professor made her rather uncomfortable and walked quickly away from her childhood friend. "I am sorry, Sev." She cried as she approached her office. She hated the newly resurrected attraction she was getting to her former friend.

"Draco, I have a surprise for you and the rest of the team but please do not tell anybody" Harry told his friend quickly as if he was about to say something important.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Well, after a long debate with your father, Sirius somehow convinced your dad that they should buy the Slytherin team the newest brooms Nimbus 2001. They should arrive before the first game and we will surely win the cup this year" Draco smiled although he was still unsure on what Black told to his father that convinced the ex Death Eater to buy the brooms together for the team. In the back of his mind, Draco knew that Sirius Black had blackmailed his father somehow since it Lucius Malfoy never did anything positive to others, save his family.